Excerpts from the Fireside Chat
New Ways of Leading:
The Coming Revolution in Jewish Communal Service
Robert Aronson, Chief Executive Officer
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit
Tuesday, January 24, 2006.
Faculty Club Lounge
Robert Aronson heads one of the country’s largest Federations and he consults to philanthropists, helping to create funding collaboratives for new ventures. His fingers are on the pulse of the Jewish communal world and his thoughts are on its future strength. He believes the field needs new definition, new energy, and new talent. He joined us for an informative and provocative fireside chat.
Leaders not Servants
“It is a pleasure and a privilege to be at Brandeis and to speak with you about what’s going on in the area of Jewish professional service. The topic for today’s discussion is the coming revolution in Jewish communal service. The first step in the revolution is that we are no longer in Jewish communal service. We are no longer playing the role as professionals where we are of service to our organizations and lay people. We now need to be trained as Jewish professional leaders…”
“Thirty years ago, the Jewish professional was really an enabler and facilitator. Ultimately the decision and responsibility lay with the volunteers. The lay people in that time tended to be supportive of the professional role… Let’s fast forward to today. The volunteers have less time and greater expectations of us. If you don’t do your job, you lose your job… If you’re applying for a job today at any level at a Jewish professional organization, the first thing they want to know about you is ‘Can you raise money?’ The second thing they want to know is ‘Can you articulate a vision of where this organization is going?’ We have to be initiators. We have to come up with the ideas and lead the lay people…”
On Training
“Our students who are going into Jewish professional leadership don’t necessarily have the tools to lead a Jewish communal organization. We need different things: We need business management. We have to understand public policy. We need to learn development and fundraising skills. We need to learn strategic thinking. We need to compete at the same level as the top business administration and public policy programs in the country…We have to compete for the best and the brightest. We need to provide greater tuition… We are no longer in a place where it is enough to say ‘You should feel good about working for the Jews’… Now we have to get smarter about how we train our professionals…”
On Mentors
“We now are in a situation where you need better supervision on the job and a mentor you can talk to about your daily problems. When I came to Detroit I found a man named Max Fisher and was privileged enough to work with him for eighteen years. He was a great mentor to me. He kept me excited and motivated and turned on about this field. You have to be able to find the things in it that really motivate you. And for me, it was people like Max Fisher…”
Vision
“We have to elevate the role, the expertise, and the education of the young professionals across the board… What I want to devote the rest of my professional life to is developing the new generation of young Jewish professionals who will have that fire in the belly and take it to the new level that we need in the field if we want to make it as an American Jewish community…”